


epiphany

by ByAStream



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Injury, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26031613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ByAStream/pseuds/ByAStream
Summary: A mission goes south and leaves you in a precarious situation
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov/Reader, James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader, Natasha Romanov/Reader, Sam Wilson & Reader, Steve Rogers & Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 67





	epiphany

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr: jbbarnesnnoble.tumblr.com
> 
> Words in bold from Taylor Swift's epiphany

_ He was back on the battlefield, the sound of gunfire around him. But he wasn’t there. Not really. He was brought back to those terrifying moments. Before the Howling Commandos. Before he was taken by Hydra the first time. Holding another soldier in his dying moments, as he cried out for someone who wouldn’t be coming.  _

_ He heard her scream. You were all trained for this. All fighters. All knew the risks. But that scream. That scream cut him to the core, a sound that shattered him to pieces. Natasha knelt over you, a panic he’d never seen before. The threat was gone, but you teetered on the edge because of it.  _

_ He could hear the buzzing of the others in the comms but they were background noise as he focused in on you and Natasha, the image in front of him reminiscent of his days on the battlefield during the war. But this wasn’t the war, and you were more than a fellow soldier. You were one of the loves of his life. One of the people he couldn’t stand to lose. Not like this.  _

He was pulled out of his thoughts when the arms wrapped around him pulled tighter as sobs tore through her body. Natasha was the definition of composure. But for now, he had to hold it together for the both of them as she fell apart in his arms. There had been no time to return to the compound. The nearest hospital was where they’d had to take you, rushing you away in the blink of an eye.

_ They had been waiting for your arrival. As soon as they had you in their care, worried chatter broke out.  _

_ “Doc, we gotta move,” someone said. Bucky and Nat stood at the doors as they watched you be rushed off, blood covering both of them. Once the shock of seeing two Avengers in the ER wore off, a nurse escorted them to where they could wait for an update. It took everything in him not to try to rush after you.  _

“She’ll be okay,” Bucky whispered, running a hand through Natasha’s hair. He had to believe. Thinking anything else was not an option. 

“What if she’s not?” Natasha asked, her voice soft, in a tone Bucky had never heard before. 

“She will be. She’s a fighter, through and through,” Bucky told her. 

_ There were three bullets. Three bullets they had to deal with and blood loss. Time lost in transport. Doctor Lannagan was far from optimistic. Not when the patient in question had a healing factor and was still knocking on death’s door from her injuries. But she knew if anyone was going to survive, it would be an Avenger, it would be you.  _

_ “Doc?” one of the nurses asked. _

_ “Keep the pressure on. We’re not losing her,” Dr. Lannagan told her. She had crashed once already on the table, brought back by the sheer determination of the team Dr. Lannagan had. No one wanted to be the person who didn’t save the Avenger who was viewed as America’s Sweetheart.  _

Time felt like it had stopped. Steve sat opposite them, keeping the team in New York updated, doing what he could to keep them from storming to Texas. Natasha had cried herself to sleep in Bucky’s lap. Vulnerability was never something Natasha showed easily. She had only been out twenty minutes when she jerked awake, fresh tears streaming down her face. 

“We lost her. And there was nothing we could do,” Natasha whispered in a broken tone.

“They won’t let us lose her, Tasha,” he said, kissing the top of her head. Steve looked away from the couple. It could have easily been Sam in the position you were in, something Steve didn’t want to think about. It was easy to forget sometimes that you were all just human. Breakable. Like glass shattering on the ground, into millions of tiny pieces. 

“I wish I could be that optimistic,” she said.

“I’ll just have to be optimistic for the both of us,” he told her. It seemed like ages before a doctor entered the room. The three occupants glanced up when the door opened. Dr. Lannagan looked at the three Avengers. She hated this part of the job, talking to the families, unless it was good news.

“Doctor?” Steve asked. 

“She’s out of surgery, but not out of the woods. Even with her healing factor, infection is a real possibility. We have her in the ICU at the moment. We won’t be able to fully evaluate her head injury until she wakes up,” Dr. Lannagan explained. Natasha picked her head up.

“But she will wake up,” Natasha said. Dr. Lannagan gave her a somber look. 

“We don’t know. It’s a waiting game. Normally we’d say only two at a time, but these aren’t normal circumstances,” the doctor said.

“It’s alright. I should update the team. You two go see her,” Steve said to the pair. Hand in hand, Natasha and Bucky followed the doctor to your room. 

It took a lot to make Bucky feel like the ground was falling out from under him. Seeing you in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines and looking so small, made him feel like his world was caving in.

“She’ll be okay. She has to be,” Natasha said, pulling a chair up beside you. They stayed by your side until Steve made them leave to go shower. Sam had shown up to make sure all three of them did. Guilt was weighing on them all. The five of them had been the ones on the mission. They had missed one agent and it had nearly cost you your life. 

“You’re a fighter kid. You’ll pull through,” Sam said.

He wasn’t surprised when less than an hour later Bucky and Natasha had returned. Steve had texted him that the rest of the team was en route, despite his protests. Sam knew there was no keeping the others away, not when one of their own was so injured. 

They took turns sitting with you, Bucky, and Natasha once the others arrived in town. Someone was always posted at the door to your room, a protective vigil of sorts. 

Natasha watched the rise and fall of your chest. One saving grace was you were breathing on your own. She wasn’t sure she could handle it if you weren’t. You were bandaged up still, your wounds healing slowly as your body worked to fix what was broken. The healing factor you had could only do so much. 

_ You were situated between Bucky and Natasha. It was your preferred arrangement. Between the three of you, you were the newest to the life of being an Avenger, of defending Earth. They had years of training on you, and they liked you to sleep between you, in the unlikely event that they would need to protect you in the night. You didn’t fight them on it. It was endearing.  _

_ Bucky had gotten up for his run an hour prior. You were still out cold, snuggling into his abandoned pillow. Natasha smiled as she watched you sleep, before pulling you close, the sound of your breathing lulling her back to sleep until your alarm went off an hour later, the smell of breakfast wafting into the bedroom. It was one of the things Bucky loved, making breakfast for his girls. Some days he’d do simple eggs and toast, other days he’d make some kind of elaborate breakfast he’d been wanting to try.  _

_ “Come on starling, time to get up,” Natasha said as she shut the alarm off. You let out a whine as she laughed, pulling you up so you were sitting. _

_ “But Nat, I don’t wanna get out of bed,” you whined. She kissed the top of your head. _

_ “Bucky made breakfast, and it smells like he made your favorite. But if you’d rather we ate it all without you,” Natasha said her voice trailing. You scrambled out of bed and out the door. Natasha smiled as she watched you trip over yourself. She loved mornings like this. More importantly, she loved you.  _

It took three days for you to wake up. You had been in and out for those three days, barely coherent enough to speak. You’d hear Natasha or Bucky and try to say ‘ _ I love you’  _ but the words were muddled.

When you did wake up, the first thing you registered was the pain, as you tried to recall what happened. You remembered being on a mission, but not what happened next. 

“You got shot, doll,” Bucky said. That explained the pain.

“How bad was it?” you asked. Natasha was rubbing her thumb in a soothing circle on the back of your hand.

“Pretty bad, starling,” she said, a quiver to her voice. The three of you sat in silence for a time, savoring the moment of being together, of you being okay. 

**_With you I serve_ **

**_With you I fall down, down_ **

**_Watch you breath in_ **

**_Watch you breathing out_ **


End file.
